Attorney General Eric Holder summoned several of the nations chiefs of police to Washington this week to seek their input on an alarming spike in police fatalities.

For the two years before 2010, shootings of police officers had been on the decline. But that changed last year.

Department of Justice figures for that year show officer deaths jumped 40 percent, with firearm fatalities climbing by nearly 25 percent.

And the trend appears to be more than an anomaly.

“This year we are unfortunately on track to exceed the numbers we saw last year,” Holder told the assembled chiefs. “We are already three full months into 2011 and yet we have already lost 48 law enforcement officers.” Original Article